No joy in Kingsmen victory

HS SWIMMING/BOYS SECTIONAL

MISHAWAKA -- There was no raucous celebration, no real joy, no overt displays of satisfaction by the Penn boys after Saturday's Mishawaka swimming sectional.

In fact, after the Kingsmen were announced as champions, a team representative simply picked up the trophy without any fanfare.

"We may be taking home the trophy," Penn coach Jess Preston said, "but St. Joseph's won the meet."

Penn finished with 290 points, 13 ahead of St. Joseph's, thanks only to a disqualification of the St. Joseph's 200-yard freestyle relay.

The St. Joe foursome of Luke Fifer, Tony Carroll, Trevor Carroll and Sean Nees won the event in 1:27.35. But, officials said Tony Carroll swam with a "drag suit," violating a rule added to the sport recently not allowing swimmers to wear more than one suit.

A "drag suit" is used by swimmers warming up. No advantage was gained -- in fact, it only slowed Carroll down.

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"They changed that rule after the last Olympics," St. Joe coach Tony Kowals said. "Swimmers were wearing more than one suit to gain compression. In the heat of competition, sometimes things like this happen."

With that event win, the Indians would have finished with 309 points, while Penn would have dropped to 288.

Tony Carroll, in fact, had already won the 200 individual medley in pool-record time of 1:56.41, then, immediately after the disqualification, won the 100 backstroke in a sectional-record time of :52.18.

He will also swim in the 400 freestyle relay at the state finals with brother Trevor, Tom Polega and Luke Fifer. They won that event in 3:12.59.

Teammates, coaches and even Preston had words of consolation for the senior after the meet.

"The way (the St. Joe) kids and ours handled themselves after the meet ... They are both classy groups," Preston said.

Despite that disappointment, the Carroll brothers and some of their teammates will be busy men next weekend at the state championships in Indianapolis.

The winner in each event, plus any others meeting a state-qualifying standard, head to the finals beginning Friday at the IUPUI Natatorium. Other top times may be added Monday to fill out each event with 32 entries.

Trevor Carroll, a sophomore, won the 200 freestyle in a pool-record effort of 1:41.45, then set a sectional record of :46.87 to win the 100 freestyle.

"We push each other a lot harder and it motivates the whole team," Tony Carroll said. "The backstroke is my main event. I finished 18th at state last year and I hope to get a top-eight place this year."

Polega took the 100 butterfly (:52.41) and joined Jake Maginn, Chris Bals and Sean Nees to win the 200 medley relay (1:38.76).

Maginn will also head to the state meet after finishing second to Tony Carroll in the backstroke with a qualifying time of :53.67.

"St. Joseph's is one of the best teams we've had in this sectional the last few years," Preston said. "They will do well next week."

While Preston gave St. Joseph's a ton of credit, he was very happy with his team.

"We swam as well as we asked them to," Preston said. "We had a great night Thursday in prelims and came back and swam great (Saturday)."

Penn will take Joshua Lercel to state in the 50 freestyle (:21.77) and Dominic Vernasco in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.99).

Also, divers Wayne Zhang and Matthew Miller finished third and fourth, respectively, qualifying them for the regional meet at Penn Tuesday. The top eight from that meet move on to the state finals.

Adams senior Guilherme Guedes set the other sectional record by winning the diving with 495.75 points. He needed every single point, as he beat Marian's Stephen Rice by only 1.35.

Other state qualifiers include Riley's James Salmon, who won the 500 freestyle in 4:53.09 and the Adams 200 free relay of Chad Ludwick, Nathan Dehorn, Noah Raymond and Luke Meyer, who moved up after the St. Joe disqualification.